Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost
1st Edition
Published on 12. February 2015
592 pages
978-1-4711-4295-6 (ISBN)
Description
Chiang Kai-shek was the man who lost China to the Communists. As leader of the nationalist movement, the Kuomintang, Chiang established himself as head of the government in Nanking in 1928. Yet although he laid claim to power throughout the 1930s and was the only Chinese figure of sufficient stature to attend a conference with Churchill and Roosevelt during the Second World War, his desire for unity was always thwarted by threats on two fronts. Between them, the Japanese and the Communists succeeded in undermining Chiang's power-plays, and after Hiroshima it was Mao Zedong who ended up victorious.
Brilliantly re-creating pre-Communist China in all its colour, danger and complexity, Jonathan Fenby's magisterial survey of this brave but unfulfilled life is destined to become the definitive account in the English language.
Brilliantly re-creating pre-Communist China in all its colour, danger and complexity, Jonathan Fenby's magisterial survey of this brave but unfulfilled life is destined to become the definitive account in the English language.
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Book
03/2005
Simon & Schuster
€43.55
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Book
12/2003
Free Press
€51.00
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Person
Jonathan Fenby is a former editor of the OBSERVER and of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. He is the author of several books including the acclaimed ON THE BRINK: THE TROUBLE WITH FRANCE and GENERALISSIMO: CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND THE CHINA HE LOST. In 2013 Jonathan was awarded the Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur by the French government for his contribution towards understanding between Britain and France.
Content
- Intro
- Title page
- About the Author
- Also by Jonathan Fenby
- Copyright page
- Dedication page
- Contents
- Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Author's Note
- Dramatis Personae
- Prologue: Thirteen Days in Xi'an
- PART I: Son of the Salt-Seller
- 1 Cold Realities
- 2 Sworn Brothers
- 3 Going to Extremes
- 4 The Will of Heaven
- 5 The Red Protector
- PART II: Shedding Blood
- 6 Lords of Misrule
- 7 To the North
- 8 Light, Heat, Power
- 9 The Great Purge
- 10 Political Union
- PART III: The Nanking Decade
- 11 Captain Chiang
- 12 Two Chinas
- 13 Heart and Skin
- 14 Follow the Leader
- 15 The Long Chase
- 16 End of Endurance
- PART IV: Broken Jade
- 17 The Most Dreadful Nightmare
- 18 I Am the State
- 19 In the Clouds
- 20 Magnetic Warfare
- 21 Peanut and Vinegar
- 22 Snow White, Madame Empress
- 23 'All Asia Is at Stake'
- PART V: The Long Goodbye
- 24 Red Leaves
- 25 Mission Impossible
- 26 Dying Light
- Epilogue: Next Year in Nanking
- Notes
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Illustrations
